In a wireless communication network, a service flow is a virtual communication link between a user's wireless communication device and another communication device, such as a network gateway. There may be multiple service flows between the user communication device and the other device. Each of the service flows typically supports a different user application. For example, a first service flow may support a voice application and a second service flow may support a video application.
The wireless communication network applies individual data rate limits to each of the service flows. For example, the first service flow may be limited to 200 kilobits per second (kbps) and the second service flow may be limited to 500 kbps. These data rate limits are not effectively coordinated. Thus, if the user is not using the first service flow, the second service flow is still limited to its original data rate. In the above example, the second service flow supporting the video application is still limited to 500 kbps even if the first service flow supporting the voice application goes unused.